


Between Stops

by stephanericher



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Established Relationship, KNBxNBA, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 02:57:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10845060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: “I don’t want to leave,” Taiga says. “It seems like I’m always leaving.”(KNBxNBA)





	Between Stops

Tatsuya had forgotten to check the MTA schedule the night before, but luckily all the work this weekend is in the outer boroughs or below 34th street, and thus irrelevant to both of them. Of course, that doesn’t mean the trains are going to run more often than fifteen or so minutes apart in the middle of a Sunday morning, but they’ll take what they can get.

He carries Taiga’s overnight bag on the walk to the station despite his protests, stopping at three bodegas before he finds one that has a copy of the _Times_. Taiga keeps looking at the deli counters, and Tatsuya nudges him at the third one, flipping through the sports section and reading the Knicks recap (reading your own press is bad—at least that’s what everyone keeps telling him—but when you’re dealing with the New York media nearly every day you have to do everything to stay ahead) as Taiga orders a bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll. He insists on paying for Tatsuya’s newspaper and cup of coffee, too, and, well. Tatsuya can never tell him no for very long.

The subway isn’t as crowded as it could be; they both get seats a few stops down when two sets of parents and their collective clump of children get off, headed toward what looks like a soccer game. Taiga gets the seat on the end, stretching his legs out a little (there’s room), and Tatsuya sits next to him, a little closer than he needs to be. He lets Taiga read the paper over his shoulder, puts the sections he’s not reading on his thigh so Taiga can slip a hand under it and drum his fingers against Tatsuya, almost subtle enough to keep the papers from rustling.

Taiga’s only in town because the Bulls are playing the Sixers tonight; he’d gotten in late last night and taken the train straight from South Jersey into the city, gotten to Tatsuya’s at around three with a sheepish sort of look on his face. They’ve only had a few hours together, most of which they’ve been asleep (or nearly so), but when the season’s this long and it’s still another month until they’ll be in the same city at the same time (and the remaining days seem to keep growing instead of shrinking) it’s absolutely worth it.

They get stuck in the tunnel just outside 42nd. The conductor keeps broadcasting that they should be moving shortly, thanking them for their patience, but what choice do they really have?

“How late can  you leave?”

“I don’t know,” says Taiga. “Depends on when the SEPTA connections are.”

Tatsuya nods—Taiga could afford a more expensive train, but they don’t run nearly as often and he’d have to transfer in Philly to get back to Jersey the other way, just so he could go back in with the rest of his team, and that’s stupid. It makes more sense to take New Jersey Transit and transfer at Trenton.

“I don’t want to leave,” Taiga says. “It seems like I’m always leaving.”

It does, kind of, or that Tatsuya’s leaving him—Tatsuya could say something like how always leaving means they always come together in the first place, but that’s not the point and he’d rather meet up less if it meant staying together more in the interim.

“I’m sorry,” Tatsuya says.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I don’t want you to leave, either,” Tatsuya says, quietly, as the train begins to move again.

Taiga adjusts his weight to lean on Tatsuya’s shoulder the rest of the ride.

They stop at Duane Reade to get Taiga something to eat on the train; he squints at the overpriced sandwiches in the display rack and shakes his head. Pretzels and chips are no good either, and because it’s early on a Sunday all the alcohol’s locked up (Tatsuya could use a drink right about now, get himself buzzed enough to distract him from Taiga leaving). They exit the store without buying anything, ready to keep walking.

They’d both forgotten there’s a Shake Shack next door, and since they don’t have a breakfast menu that means real fast food. Taiga’s practically already inside, ordering his two burgers and a chicken sandwich with cheese fries and a Coke. Unlike at the drugstore, the beer in the fridge is uncovered.

“Is it too early for beer?” Tatsuya says.

The cashier shrugs. “You do you.”

Well, then.

Tatsuya gets a beer with his chicken sandwich (he can steal a couple of Taiga’s fries). He sips on it while they wait for the food, handing it over to Taiga for a bit. It’s not strong enough to really affect him, but it tastes good. It’s not even as something to do while they wait, because just sitting like this in a booth with Taiga, holding hands under the table, is enough for now. They have this kind of thing, and still Tatsuya’s greedy enough to want more. But then again Taiga is, too; Tatsuya’s long since accepted that much as fact, stopped trying to metaphorically pinch himself before he believes too hard.

Taiga pulls the pickles off his chicken; they’re covered in mayo and it’s hard to fit them onto Tatsuya’s already-overstuffed roll. He gives the last one back, placing it on Taiga’s tongue (they’re his favorite, but Taiga likes them, too). And God, he wants to feed Taiga the rest of his sandwich, the burgers, too; he wants to sequester them both off forever so there’s never any train to catch, never any reason to leave each other.

“I know,” says Taiga, pushing the fries over to Tatsuya’s side of the table.

They eat the rest in silence, and Taiga slurps on the dregs of his soda while they overstay their welcome (no matter; this early it’s pretty deserted and no one seems at all interested in kicking them out).

But there is a hard limit; they’re running up against it as they make their way to the waiting area. The track still hasn’t been posted yet, but Taiga wraps Tatsuya in a hug.

“Text me when you get in,” Tatsuya says.

“Yeah,” says Taiga.

The PA system crackles; Tatsuya tries not to listen but he hears the familiar listing of stops on the northeast corridor, Newark Penn, Newark Liberty, Elizabeth, Linden, Rahway—

“That’s me,” Taiga says, grabbing his bag back from Tatsuya’s shoulder.

He gives Tatsuya one last squeeze around the waist before heading toward the door to the escalator; Tatsuya watches him leave and waits, long after he’s disappeared (not in some vain hope he’ll have forgotten something or that he’ll come back and find some alternative way of getting to the hotel in time, okay). The PA calls the all-aboard, and Tatsuya turns to leave then.

**Author's Note:**

> been feeling not great lately, wrote this as a mood lifter.....at least that was the intent l m f a o maybe i'll do sth more cheerful later


End file.
